Theft of Dragons (Princes of Naverstrom)

by John Forrester

  And the girls smiled with hopeful eyes as they tittered away and merged into small gathered groups of friends gossiping about the strange arrival of the party. Bishop Draven humbly inquired regarding lodging for the night, talking to a wizened old man who appeared to garner the respect of a few well-dressed merchants standing and sipping ale from mugs at an outside bar overlooking the sea. He nodded and listened with fervent interest as the man's wrinkled lips mumbled oft-repeated words and looked to his friends for frequent confirmation.

  "Let me guess," said Master Vhelan, an amused expression on his face. "They recommended we stay in the Pale Horse Inn?"

  "Oh, why do I even bother, old man." The Bishop huffed as he followed the sorcerer. The reassertion of Master Vhelan's leadership on the party affirmed Tael's earlier suspicions, and his grandfather's raised eyebrows at him sent a silent note of distrust. If it weren't for the Hakkadians control over their dragon mounts, Tael had a feeling his grandfather would insist that they part ways.

  Tael felt proud as the Princess paraded herself next to him, her silk gown swishing with the lithe steps of a dancer. Her hand even snaked into his and she beamed at him mischievously, as if granting him the grace of the village girls jealousy. And it worked. All around him young women whispered wistfully to each other, their eyes aiming at him while they shot cruel glances at the Princess. He knew they wanted to be her and shag him.

  He grinned and enjoyed the attention, but understood that gossip flew fast in villages and faded just as quickly as the novelty wore off. They rounded mucky street corners lined with milling villagers sitting on porches of dilapidated houses, shops, restaurants, and inns. Higher they climbed until the streets were covered in cobblestone and the buildings painted white and the color of the emerald-blue sea. The few, important-looking people here dressed in pressed cotton and silk and satin, and their pompous faces were a stark contrast to the gleeful, innocent expressions of the poorer throngs below.

  "We welcome you to Karth, Your Excellency." An unusually tall, distinguished-looking man wearing a stiff black hat and black silk suit stared at Bishop Draven with puzzled eyes. "I didn't realize the Calathian Church sent Bishops on missionary expeditions west. You've missed the Islands of Marr by quite a stretch, I must say. And the only thing you'll find west of here is the pirate town of Glar Bay and the heretics of the Malathian Kingdom. I highly doubt you'll find friendly flocks there." His arrogant chuckle sent snickers through the well-heeled ladies dressed in excessively lacy white gowns.

  As Bishop Draven was about to retort, the man interrupted and said, "And how odd, the outlaw Master Greyth Shalinor and the Hakkadian...Master Vhelan together in the same group? Without fighting in a wild and wonderful contest of magical power?" He leaned around to face a brooding, indifferent woman. "And here we thought we'd have another boring night of getting ourselves pissed with only the prospect of partaking in the pleasures of each others' wives."

  Kealian grunted with raucous humor in his eyes. "Now your wives have the pleasing prospect of being fucked by me and my men."

  The color immediately drained from the once arrogant man as he glanced at the knights and the sorcerers, and Tael realized that the man likely knew his lack of an army to back up his ballsy words. The tall man opened his mouth to speak, but clamped it shut, thinking the better of it. His mind whirled from his untenable position, eyes glancing around the group but fell still after failing to find sympathy. He spread his white palms wide in a gesture of defeat.

  "I mean you no disrespect—" But his words were cut off by Master Greyth's raised hand.

  "Gracefully retire for the evening. And leave the soldiers up in that keep of yours to their sleep. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

  The tall man nodded, wilting several inches, his manhood deflated by the wizard's words. As he strode away alone he paused and glanced back at the woman and hurt shone on his face as her eyes were fixed with fascination on Kealian. Several of his friends chased after him, and they vanished down a dimly lit street.

  Sebine's face seemed perplexed studying Kealian as he strolled up to talk to the man's wife. The Hakkadians turned away in disgust and strode together towards a towering inn. Tael led the Princess away from the convoluted scene and followed after the sorcerers. Off to the side, he could see the knights fanning out to stalk in towards the women like lions picking out prey. They seemed to find many unresisting targets.

  "How exactly did we choose those knights to join our party?" Sebine whispered to Tael. "And for that matter the Bishop, who seems more interested in things of the flesh than higher pursuits? Quite heretical aspirations for a Bishop of the Calathian Church." She frowned at her own words and stared at Bishop Draven admonishing a naive-looking girl of perhaps seventeen.

  "The hand of fate is strange and filled with absurdity." Tael helped Sebine step up the stairs into the inn. The crisply painted sign bore the bold-faced letters: THE PALE HORSE. He felt a shiver run down his spine as he scanned the words. "Odd name for an inn."

  "Odd place and odd people here. I'd rather we just camped for the night. Though I must say, the thought of having a bath and a proper place to put my head gives me great joy.

  "Assuming they have enough rooms to hold us all." Tael found a young innkeeper sitting at a desk in the corner quietly reading a book.

  "I don't mind sharing a room with you," Sebine whispered shyly, and Tael felt his chest thump several times in nervous excitation.

  Master Greyth entered the room and scanning around, found the innkeeper and strode over to him. The sitting man's face flowered in recognition and he stood neatly and shook the wizard's hand. Tael led Sebine over in time to hear his grandfather speak.

  "Yes, rooms enough for nineteen of us. I think two per room is fine, though the Princess here will need her own room."

  The innkeeper's face turned pale at the mention of the word Princess and glanced with shocked eyes at Sebine. Tael's hopes fell for a night alone with her, and sensing his disappointment, she squeezed his hand and sent him an inviting look that eased his worries of sleeplessness due to a snoring soldier.

  "Whatever you have is fine, really, the price doesn't matter. Yes, ten rooms if you have them." Master Greyth studied the young innkeeper's consternated face as he flipped through pages in his registry book.

  "Three rooms will have to be back in the stables, I'm afraid."

  The wizard dismissed the worry away with a wave of his hand. "Soldiers don't mind—they can sleep anywhere." He shook hands with the innkeeper and tossed him a thick coin purse. "We'll be needing food and baths. Can you have both ready?"

  "Of course, sir, of course," the man said, a quick look of efficiency pouring over his posture.

  Master Greyth grunted something about needing to run an errand, and the old wizard scurried away, his eyes distracted. The innkeeper led Tael and Sebine over to a table next to a decidedly raging fire. The heat made Tael sweat, so he removed his leather jacket and hung it on the chair.

  "This place is feels strange to me for some reason, and I can't quite figure out why." Tael studied Sebine's eyes for hints of sympathy but found none.

  "Maybe it's just the uncertainty of the journey, of our fight against the King." She glanced around the room. "I just see an nasty inn in a dinky little fishing village." Her smile melted his concern, causing him to chuckle.

  "You're probably right. Hopefully the food is decent and the bed's comfortable."

  "Oh, I'm more than certain we'll find the bed comfortable." She winked at him with unabashed playfulness. "And besides, we'll have a roof over our heads."

  "I don't know, I kind of like sleeping out under the stars, feeling the cool clean air fill my lungs."

  "And the dust and the straw and the soldiers and sorcerers around giving us absolutely no privacy?" She shook her head. "I've asked Master Vhelan to ensure we stop at actual villages and cities along the way. I'm quite tired of getting bit by mosquitoes and camping out in the open. A few nights were charming eno
ugh for me."

  "Any desire for privacy is fine by me." She blushed as he gazed at her, but she leaned her head over against him and snuggled as if wanting to burrow into his arms and rest.

  "I could never dream of going away on a trip like this," she said, her voice wistful and soft. "My friends and I would talk about our lives and what we wanted, and they always looked at me with weird, distant eyes when I told them I wanted to be free. And now that I have freedom, I can't really decide what to do with it all. Especially since I had an actual chance of killing the King and now it's gone. I feel so angry that he outsmarted us."

  "Just get revenge, and not in a regular way, in a really spectacular way that will feel incredibly satisfying when you do it. I can think of many hideous ways of killing someone." His memory slid irresistibly back to the Black Heart Clan assassin, and how the small girl had felt haunted him. He could only imagine the agony she could cause through murdering someone like that.

  She scoffed and grinned at him like he was a freak. "Aren't you the sadistic one? I learn more about you every day. Not that I don't like it, mind you. But you're turning more into a psychology case study each day."

  Tael winced faintly at her remark, but shrugged it off and gave her a quick look. "You might feel like me if you'd had Black Heart Assassins chasing after you since you were young, and seeing your parents murdered while you hide uselessly behind a plant." Tends to anger and twist the mind, Tael thought.

  "Listen, I'm sorry." Sebine placed a hand on his arm. "I shouldn't have said that. Ask anyone, I say random stupid things quite often. No wonder all the suitors give up chasing me."

  "Good thing for me, or I'd likely never have met you." He accepted her apologetic peck, and pulled her close for another deeper, more demanding kiss that left her breathing hard and her brow misted with sweat.

  "I'll have to upset you more often if it makes you kiss me like that," she said, and forced her eyes go wide in anticipation.

  A servant boy brought over a steaming plate of bread wrapped in cloth, and plopped two mugs filled with mead on the table. He trotted back towards the kitchen, promising to return with more food. Tael found his mouth watering at the promise of meat and mead, but at the look of determined patience on Sebine's face decided to uphold manners and wait.

  From outside came a man's deep voice shouting and as Tael stood in concern, thinking of Kealian's stupid insult, a woman's scream came after a quick flurry of blades singing together in melee. He pushed himself up, furious at the knights, and knew the idiots must have started a fight.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  AS TAEL CHASED outside to see what was going on, he told Sebine to wait, but she ignored him and followed him after the door banged shut. A crowd of at least thirty raging men held swords and knives and hammers, and the angry mob chased after the retreating knights who seemed to laugh in the face of their opposition.

  "Another one of you fucking bastards wants to get cut by my steel?" Sebine recognized the voice of Kealian, his bloodied blade bandied about carelessly. Did they have to go and rile up a mob against them? She felt revulsion at the knights and wished Tael had never suggested they come along. At his approach at the bottom of the stairs, she shouted for him to stop.

  When he ignored her plea she cast a stunning spell and anchored herself against a stone wall on the opposite side of the square and cast another spell. She yanked him back up to the top of the stairs where she had to dodge his body as it slammed against and broke the inn's front door.

  The shattered door only gained a momentary glance from the mob, but they returned to force their way after the pressed together knights. Sebine whirled around to help Tael who lay groggily on the floor, mumbling those stupid knights...I'll fucking kill them.

  The Hakkadians were nowhere to be found. After Master Greyth had departed, they'd vanished someplace inside the inn. Even Bishop Draven was gone. She was all alone with a barely conscious Tael and an angry mob outside trying to kill the knights. Let the bastards get themselves killed, she told herself. What the hell do I care?

  Sebine looked around for help and found the innkeeper scuttling over, fear and panic in his eyes.

  "There's a mob outside," the young innkeeper said unnecessarily, as everyone in the room was already poised at the windows gaping at the commotion outside. "Was your friend hurt by the mob?"

  "It's all so confusing." Sebine demurred, not wanting to address the issue of Tael's injury. "Where is Master Greyth? We have to find him. And can you have someone help take my friend to his room? I want to keep him safe and have a healer look at his head wound—he seems a bit delirious."

  "I haven't seen Master Greyth since he first arrived. And don't you worry, Your Royal Highness, I'll take care of everything." The innkeeper whistled and summoned over the servant boy who quickly retrieved an obese cook wearing a bloodstained apron.

  The men managed to carry Tael's limp and muscled body up the stairs to a bed in a room overlooking the square, where Sebine could the see that the mob had grown even larger. No matter how skilled the knights might be she knew they had no chance against a civil uprising. Would the mob associate Tael or her with Kealian and the other knights, and come after them next? Where was Master Greyth and Master Vhelan?

  "What about the group of small men wearing robes? Their leader wore a red robe. About six of them entered the inn before I came inside," Sebine said, and studied the man's puzzled face.

  "I don't remember any such men arriving. I think I would have noticed such a large group."

  "But you were reading your book," said Sebine accusingly.

  Her harsh words only added to the man's agitation and confusion. "Maybe...I'm not sure, but honestly, I think I would have seen a group of six men enter the inn!" He sighed, his face apologetic. "I'm sorry for my outburst. Let me go attend to finding your friend a healer. And if I see Master Greyth I'll be sure to send him straightaway up to your room."

  The men left and closed the door, and turning the lock, she listened to their pounding footsteps on the stairs. She went over to the window and stared out into the square, and gasped as the mob circled around a fallen knight. A large boot kicked away the soldier's steel helm and a hammer slammed into his skull, killing the knight in an instant. The mob roared in excitement at its gory victory.

  Their eyes fell on the group of now dispersing knights, of which Sebine only counted seven remaining. As the crowd chased after the fleeing knights, she spotted another body lying on the street, a knight wearing the insignia of the Order of Calathian Knights, a pool of blood under where his throat had been slit. She still hadn't spotted Kealian, the one who had instigated the mob in the first place. Had he escaped?

  By now the sounds of the mob grew distant as the villagers ran after the knights. Curious onlookers filtered out of the inn and houses and shops to gawk at the bloodied and brutalized bodies. No one screamed or came to pay pity on the dead men. A brave street urchin scampered up to one knight and lifted his purse and another dragged off his heavy sword. Sebine swiveled her head over to the other body to see the soldier being similarly vandalized by another group of gleefully greedy boys. Soon nothing was left but the two dead bodies wearing shit-stained under-garments. The lot of urchins had stolen everything, and several empty-handed boys chased off to where the mob had gone.

  What an absolute nightmare, Sebine thought, and wished she knew how to communicate with Master Vhelan. What if the Hakkadians, upon seeing the disgusting behavior of the knights, had decided to leave them? But why would her master leave her all alone with nothing? She told herself that likely the sorcerers were just allowing the knights to reap the rewards of their own folly, and that they'd show up later when things calmed down. But then why did Master Greyth also disappear and leave his grandson vulnerable to the mob? Or perhaps neither master even knew of the mob because by then they'd already left? She and Tael had talked by the fire for quite some time after Master Greyth had gone away.

  A knock on the door disrupted
her thoughts. "Who's there?"

  At the sound of the innkeeper's subservient voice, Sebine unlocked the door and accepted a letter just arrived for Tael from a delivery boy. She opened it without hesitation, and cast a quick spell to increase the light in the candlelit room. The letter was written in a bold, powerful script.

  Tael,

  I followed the Hakkadians back to the cave and confronted them. Master Vhelan insists on leaving and I had no desire for a fight. He said to tell Princess Sebine that he regrets needing to leave, but his wife has called out to him for help and he had no choice but to go. I told him it was a trap. He said he was the master of traps and any tricks towards him would spring back and harm the one setting the trap. Strange old bugger. He's taken the dragons...all of them. Left me gold.

  Pack your things and come to the docks. I'm procuring boats for our immediate departure.

  — Master Greyth Shalinor

  Sebine folded the letter and placed it back inside the envelope, feeling shocked as if someone had slapped her on the face. Why would Master Vhelan leave her and take all the dragons? He could have left Alyxaria and Kraithen and perhaps a dragon for Master Greyth. But to leave them with nothing? It just didn't make sense. She wrinkled up her face and pictured the beady, evil eyes of King Braxion. Of course, he threatened to kill Master Vhelan's wife unless he returned with all the dragons. The old sorcerer had no choice. Likely he knew all along, but stalled enough to take them to the Ferelian Sea where they could find passage to the Malathian Kingdom. And he gave them the King's gold—or at least as much as Master Greyth could manage.

  A groggy groan escaped from Tael's mouth and Sebine scampered over to the bed and knelt next to him. His eyes opened in a squint and Sebine lowered the summoned light of her spell.